Dublin Airport Pays €1.5m to Airlines that Grew in 2011

Dublin Airport Authority is paying €1.5 million in airport charges rebates to 30 of its airline customers that grew their operations at Dublin last year. Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport increased by 2% to 18.7 million last year as more than 300,000 extra people used the airport.

A total of 30 airlines increased their passenger traffic at Dublin last year and, under the airport’s Growth Incentive Scheme, each of these airlines will now receive a rebate of their charges based on their level of growth. The rebates are being paid to operators that grew their passenger numbers at Dublin during 2011. Among those receiving rebates are; Aer Arann, Aer Lingus, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Norwegian, SAS, Swiss, Turkish Airlines and US Airways.

“This scheme was designed to encourage growth in passenger numbers and we are delighted to be paying a rebate of €1.5 million to the 30 airlines that grew their business from Dublin last year,” said DAA’s Director of Strategy, Vincent Harrison. “Against a difficult economic background, passenger numbers did increase at Dublin Airport last year. International traffic was up 3% last year, as domestic travel declined, and foreign originating inbound traffic was the best performing sector of the market in 2011.”

He added that eight additional services from Dublin have already been announced for 2012 and a number of airlines have also announced that they are adding capacity to existing services from Dublin.

The Growth Incentive Scheme, which will continue to be offered to airlines this year and in 2013, is one of a number of incentives offered by DAA at its three airports to encourage growth and stimulate the development of new routes. The Growth scheme rebates passenger service charges to airlines for traffic growth at any of DAA’s three Irish airports. Once the threshold of the previous year’s traffic total has been achieved, airlines that increase their passenger numbers are rebated based on their contribution to the overall growth at the airport in question. Payments under the scheme are capped at the overall growth level of each individual airport.